“But you know what, man, keep your English, because we’re grabbing the Cup, and we’re bringing it to Montreal, and we’re bringing it to Quebec, and we’re bringing it home!”— from the French rant by Montreal Alouette Marc-Antoine Dequoy

While the 110th Grey Cup win by Montreal over favoured  Winnipeg was a classic comeback, it’s now being tainted by an issue that’s much older than 110 years. Canada’s bilingualism/ biculturalism debate. Having already relegated the game to cable-only TSN/ RDS the CFL must have decided that— who cares— we are in Hamilton, Ontario. Why bother with all that annoying bilingual signage?

After all, no one cares that the American band Green Day is playing at halftime of the game when any number of Canadian acts are available for the gig. Who’s going to bitch about a few advertisements? Reality check, aisle three. Language grievance is always in season in Québec.

As the French media covering the game noted in the days before the game the signage around the stadium was exclusively English-only. Didier Orméjuste of RDS observed en français, “The CFL is supposed to be a bilingual league but there is not one Coupe Grey sign in the stadium. Can’t say I’m surprised.”

The league crest at centre field read CFL only. Not LFC. Considering the efforts the CFL has made prostrating itself before the federal policy of bilingualism (for which it receives public money) it was inexcusable. It was a firing offence. Caught with their pants down the CFL rustled up a few signs around Tim Horton’s Field and led PA announcements with French. But the damage was done.

Which led to the impassioned rant by Als player Marc-Antoine Duquoy in the moments after the Als’ dramatic comeback win. He has since backed off a bit on his comments, saying “I just felt disrespected for me and for my province and for my heritage.” Since then Québec media has pummelled the league for its obtuse behaviour.

Anglo Quebecker Andrew Potter wrote, “The message it sends to Quebecers is this: If the rest of Canada can’t be bothered, why should they?” Memo to Potter: Not sure where you have been, but the rest of Canada dropped cultural football a while ago as a remnant of another time. They don’t care.

Let’s be honest, the official bilingual policy we’ve had was a dry run for the Carbon Tax. It has been a multi-billion dollar sinkhole foisted on the country by Justin Trudeau’s daddy. Like all top-down policies it is permanent and immutable. And useless at its stated goal. Quebec clearly doesn’t need it. The ROC resents it.

Leader of the Government in the House of Commons Pablo Rodriguez looks towards Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as they take part in a press conference during the COVID pandemic in Ottawa on Friday, Oct. 16, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

In cloistered Ottawa it still has a political status that far outstrips its usefulness to the nation. While the Trudeau/ Singh cabal are slashing defence spending, no one dares divert a dime from chasing a failed dream of cultural harmony. At these prices, who needs bilingual postal workers in Moose Jaw? Or Anglo bureaucrats in Granby?

It currently serves as a fig leaf to protect the Liberal strongholds of Anglo Quebeckers and Francophone minorities in the Maritimes and Manitoba. In Québec at least, the majority francophones have steadily eroded any sense of language fairness in the province’s education, business or cultural sectors. The latest is a crushing tuition hike for out-of-province (read: Anglo) students.

The harried Anglos remaining in the province after decades of diaspora are like the white Rhodesians, voting against their best interests in the faint hope that the Liberals will save their dwindling numbers and make it Expo 67 again.

Living in Quebec, Duquoy can be forgiven for thinking that ROC is as obsessed with B&B as are the hyper-vigilant tongue troopers in Québec, who turn every slight into an excuse for more cultural purity. In fact, the ROC is far more concerned with Québec’s permanent dependency on equalization money at the expense of the energy industry it works so fervently to destroy.

The quid pro quo that underpinned the 1960s dreams of B&B— that acceptance of French everywhere would still Québec’s drive for sovereignty— is now Alberta and Saskatchewan pointing out the double standards in the current federation while asking, “Why can’t we make like Québec with a pension plan, police force and control over immigration?”

Hate to break it to Potter and Duquoy, but most in the West would gladly negotiate a new deal with Québec to re-shape the hollow dream that is Trudeau’s Canada. Keep hockey, but work out a deal the way Czechia and Slovakia did to live peaceably in their own way. Make Québec pay for its vanities while ROC hashes out a new working arrangement that reflects the current zeitgeist.

Yes, the CFL booted their Grey Cup presentation. From a business point of view insulting a significant part of your base was capotée. But in its ineptitude the league held up a mirror to the country that thinks you can make this potage of Canadian denial and American cultural pre-eminence still work.

Now, if we can just get Randy Ambrosie and his pals to drop Trudeau’s Diversity delusion from its values we might be onto something really valuable.

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Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx

From LifeSiteNews

By AnthonyvMurdoch

Citing Christmas as an ‘obvious example,’ the Canadian Human Rights Commission characterized celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ as ‘discrimination’ rooted ‘in Canada’s history of colonialism.’

The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) is being slammed for suggesting that those who celebrate Christian holidays, including Christmas, are exhibiting intolerance and perpetuating so-called “settler colonialism.”  

According to a recent document the CHRC published on October 23, 2023, titled “Discussion Paper On Religious Intolerance,” holidays such as Christmas and Easter are forms of discrimination and religious intolerance. 

The CHRC said that observing the birth of Jesus Christ is “an obvious example” of a type of religious bias that is rooted in colonialism. 

“Discrimination against religious minorities in Canada is grounded in Canada’s history of colonialism,” reads the Commission’s paper.  

The CHRC was immediately blasted by Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MPs and others for being “ridiculous” and “woke.”

“This is ridiculous,” wrote CPC MP Jeremy Patzer on X (formerly Twitter) yesterday in response to the Commission’s paper. 

This is ridiculous. Christmas is celebrated all around the world by people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds. This is another example of woke ideology fomenting within the federal government. I for one will be celebrating Christmas whole heartedly. Merry Christmas!🎄 https://t.co/9EtpLuWvRG

— Jeremy Patzer (@JeremyPatzerMP) November 21, 2023

“Christmas is celebrated all around the world by people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds. This is another example of woke ideology fomenting within the federal government. I for one will be celebrating Christmas whole heartedly. Merry Christmas!”  

One concerned Canadian said that the CHRC itself is engaging in discrimination for “attacking” Christians’ right to celebrate the birth of Christ, a right Canada has upheld since its founding.

Despite the mainstream push to switch to the term “Happy holidays” in lieu of “Merry Christmas,” a Leger poll from December 2022 found that the overwhelming majority of non-Christian Canadians are content with being greeted by the words “Merry Christmas” during the season of Advent.

When the non-Christians were asked if they were “Offended when people greet me with ‘Merry Christmas’,” 92 said they disagreed with only 8 percent agreeing.  

The CHRC is an independent federal institution created in 1977 that oversees holding up Canada’s human rights laws. 

The CHRC claims that the history of holidays “manifests itself in present day systemic religious discrimination. An obvious example is statutory holidays in Canada.” 

“Statutory holidays related to Christianity including Christmas and Easter are the only Canadian statutory holidays linked to religious holy days,” it said. 

“As a result non-Christians may need to request special accommodation to observe their holy days.” 

The European settlers that came to Canada, from France and then later from what is the modern-day United Kingdom, were Christian and included missionaries who came to try and spread the faith to the local indigenous populations.  

Canada has observed Christmas since 1641, well before its official founding, according to some historical records. Despite this, the CHRC said that the nation’s “history with religious intolerance is deeply rooted in our identity as a settler colonial state.” 

In 2021, a federal court directive mandated that all references to Christmas holidays be removed from all court calendars, however, this directive did not come from a complaint but instead was an internal decision.